


On a Butterfly's Wings

by chibixkadaj



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, K-Pop - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 01:49:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15719439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibixkadaj/pseuds/chibixkadaj
Summary: Eros and Psyche reincarnated, re-imagined. Where we won't make the same mistakes.





	On a Butterfly's Wings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for the #ChanKaiFest fic/fanart fest! It was brief but enjoyable and I hope the prompter enjoys reading this as much as I did writing it. I find the original myth hard to swallow at parts so I wanted to aim for more of a redemption arc. Please enjoy^^

_Zkdlin: Are you sure about this?_  
_Cksduf: Ofc! Why wouldn’t I be?_  
_Zkdlin: No reason. I just don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable._  
_Zkdlin: Sorry that might be weird to just see written out so blatantly…_  
_Zkdlin: I just mean that_  
_Zkdlin: I really want to meet you_  
_Zkdlin: But I know it’s been kind of hard so I just_  
_Zkdlin: Want to make sure you’re okay with meeting me too  
_ _Zkdlin: Tonight_

Jongin realizes he needs to tone it back a bit. It’s not very becoming of anyone to lay out their anxieties so blatantly via KakaoTalk; let alone someone of his caliber both on earth and beyond. He takes a breath. But he really likes the other male and he really understands why he is so peculiar about anything involving his visuals. He’s shared his insecurities with Jongin--well, Kai. He’s shared how his Instagram alter-ego Nabi has brought him so much fame and so much heartache all in one go. What’s a human too pretty for this world to do? When no one is interested outside of his looks, when he wanted to build a career in the backgrounds of others, how could he get anywhere? These were the thoughts Nabi bequeathed unto Kai in the earliest hours of the day, sometimes curled around a bottle of soju, sometimes comforted only by the cloak of night and the anonymity of their chat app.

Chanyeol knew sharing himself as “Nabi”--Seoul’s top Instagram influencer of the year, named for the butterfly wing tattoo on his shoulder blades--was a risky move, but Nabi and Chanyeol were so disassociated that it stopped mattering. With KKT he could reveal Chanyeol’s thoughts on Nabi’s name behind an anonymous handle. And secretly...maybe he wanted to be exposed. Burn his legacy to the ground so he could rise anew like a phoenix.

But instead Kai bequeathed his own secrets in return. They say opposites attract but Kai and Chanyeol are much more alike than anticipated because Kai is also Jongin, the up-and-coming soloist whose win on _Find Next: New Dancer_ propelled him to instant success. And while Chanyeol shared all of his insecurities, Kai in return made one simple request:

 _Zkdlin: I’d like you to keep calling me Kai. It makes me feel safer now  
_ _Zkdlin: I’ve lost Jongin to the public_

Chanyeol gets it, that’s why he’s only shared his real name with the stranger in his KKT and his pre-fame friends. Talking to Kai makes him think they can regain their humanity together. Maybe Kai could do that with him. Maybe one day. 

Today, though, Chanyeol is too busy styling his hair to be hidden well underneath a bucket hat. He slips on a bomber jacket over his white t-shirt, laces up black boots over his gray skinny jeans, and tops it all off with a white face mask. Enough to pique interest while keeping himself hidden, with the butterfly underneath two layers. He just hopes his ears wouldn’t stand out too much.

They had opted to meet at a cafe midway between their two apartments. Chanyeol arrives first, anxious because he’s not sure he can pick out his counterpart amidst many other black hats and face masks. But when the bells on the entrance door signal the arrival of a tall male, but still shorter than Chanyeol, hidden under his own baseball cap and a facemask marked with a bear face, a feeling in his gut tips him off. This is Kai.

Kai smiles with his eyes and orders them both Americanos before joining Chanyeol. Masks tucked just over their chins, they talk like they’ve known each other forever. Chanyeol assumes it’s because of the depth of secrets they’ve shared. Jongin knows there’s more than that.

Empty plastic cups before them, he doesn’t have the distraction of ice in their drinks to keep his eyes from trailing over Kai’s collarbone peeking out of his shirt, or the way the thin, soft fabric of his shirt formed over his arm muscles. Irresistible. But he guess it made sense, considering his celebrity status.

Kai’s currently laughing at a joke he himself told when Chanyeol dares to ask Jongin about his apartment. The younger blinks. “My apartment? You want to come over?”

Chanyeol swallows. He does. He really does. And he wishes that there was alcohol in their plastic cups to cover up his eagerness and give him an out that isn’t just _“you’re so attractive and I’ve been celibate for far too long.”_ Since before Nabi had even 1000 followers! But since he’s a cruel mix of sober and horny he merely nods, cracking a bright and toothy smile.

How can Kai resist?

Thing is, though, Jongin has twice the secrets he’s keeping from Chanyeol-- twice the identities. Chanyeol knows Kai, the performer with the secret KakaoTalk. Chanyeol has even learned of Jongin, the up-and-coming celebrity whose parents bribed him to audition with the promise of a video console (that he never received, by the way). But beneath that is and one more step further...Kai is Eros, the son of Aphrodite, God of attraction and affection and all things loving and sexual. Few people can resist him on or off stage because of it. Chanyeol, though, has all the more reason to fall for his charms-- because Kai’s final secret on both Chanyeol and himself.

He leads the way back from the coffee shop to his apartment, dragging on their time by opting to walk the 25 minutes rather than subway. Chanyeol doesn’t mind. It allows him a very needed opportunity to take in the cool fall air and, even more importantly, to press himself against Kai’s side for some “much needed warmth.”

By the time they reach Kai’s door their fingers are intertwined in Chanyeol’s pocket and Kai is sure he can feel the rate of Chanyeol’s heart thundering in his own chest.

Kai slips his keys into the door and both step inside, somehow miraculously unfollowed by any nosy fans. The apartment, even when Kai flips the light switch, is dim and hard to make out many details that aren’t centimeters from one’s nose. Chanyeol would find it weird were his mind not foggy with desire and his heart telling him it was mood lighting. Plus he doesn’t need light to peel back his flannel or tug off his undershirt. The belt and jeans go easily too. He does need Kai, who has already stripped if the sound of his belt hitting the floor with a _thud_ is any indication, to guide him across the foreign tiles to a bed he’s never touched before.

His butterfly wings hit the soft sheets first, followed by his head falling into the pile of plush pillows. Kai crawls over him, nudging Chanyeol’s legs apart with a chuckle and settling between them when they fall open with ease. Looking up, dark eyes can only make out the hard lines of Kai’s figure, illuminated from the back by the dimmest yellow light, shadows cast over his face. Chanyeol can’t see much more than he could underneath their disguises-- but at the very least there’s the crease of Kai’s eye smile. and Honestly, that’s all he needs.

Chanyeol’s rusty but not shy-- He moans directions; he bucks his hips, he grabs fistfuls of Kai’s soft chocolate brown hair and tugs his lips away from the mark that he’s sucking into his hip when he wants a kiss. Messy and uninhibited, they clash tongue and teeth and wet lips, folding one another up in a tangle of limbs until Kai’s been rolled over onto his back and Chanyeol now straddles his hips. Even here, with his own back blocking the light, he can only make out so much of Kai in the dark. He arches forward, teeth nibbling over the shell of Kai’s ear, fingers toying with one hard nipple. “I want to taste you,” he whispers with a low, sultry little laugh. Kai’s breath hitches. Isn’t _he_ supposed to be the God of seduction? Who is Chanyeol to so easily take his title? But really...who is Kai to actually say no?

He gasps in quiet puffs of air, almost soundless and it makes Chanyeol want to do that much _more_ to pull the noise out of him. He licks long lines across Kai’s abs ( _abs_! But he probably should’ve expected that considering he’s a dancer) and presses his fingers just hard enough into his hips. Slowly his tongue drags from stomach to hip bone to inner thigh until his nibbling cruelly just close enough to where his partner aches to be touched.

“You’re the _worst,_ ” Kai lets out with an airy, strained chuckle. He can’t see it, but Chanyeol merely beams back. Eventually he grants Kai one kitten-light lick up his shaft and revels in the electricity it shoots up his spine. Both their spines, actually. Chanyeol is just as aroused.

“Wait,” Kai cuts him off just as he’s about to indulge them both. “Come here, I wanna help you out too.” But he doesn’t give Chanyeol much time to adjust before he’s pulling the other into his arms, stealing a brief kiss, and then positioning Chanyeol’s knees at either side of his head. Here he can lap at the precum forming at the tip. Here he can swallow down the electricity forming in Chanyeol’s body as he, too, takes Kai between his lips. And here he can start prepping the other male for the moment they’re both building anticipation for. One finger first, slow and steady and deliberate; then two, adding that stretch, curling to tease a taste of the pleasure that’s about to come.

But Kai’s not totally composed either; not with the way that Chanyeol takes him between his lips. His tongue drags long up the underside of his cock and _fuck_ Kai has to clench his thighs to keep himself together. He’s not going to last like this-- not with the way Chanyeol’s beautiful body rests atop his own, back curved slightly so all the lines in his body show. Kai indulges the fingers of his free hand to drink in the touch of the other’s skin before punctuating the sweet motion with a gentle slap to Chanyeol’s ass. The other lets out a low yelp and a molasses smooth chuckle. Kai’s enamored.

“You ready?” He asked with a warm exhale, feeling all sorts of breathy and needy.

“Ready,” Chanyeol repeats, letting Kai’s hand slowly guide him off his body and into his arms before the switch positions.

As the clouds have shifted over the moon and stars it’s only gotten darker around them. But despite it Kai can see almost too perfectly. Chanyeol’s flushed cheeks and lidded eyes, the small smile etched on the corners of his lips; it’s all perfectly illuminated for Kai--just like it always has been, even shrouded in the dark like this.

Chanyeol is so beautiful. Every iteration, every reincarnation. Psyche is always so beautiful. And every time Eros can find them he feels whole again despite the cycle of love and loss and love again.

Kai lets out a sigh, back of his hand caressing Chanyeol’s cheek gently. Maybe it’s time. He tried to learn at each point. He’s tried to keep the suffering away from Psyche but even his best efforts bring a bad fate. But this always remains the same. Eros’ fear that revealing himself here, in full, will recall millenias of pain for Psyche. That they’ll look upon Eros no longer with the love and adoration he will court but fear and anger for the cruel fate endured. It tends to end well when Eros can be recognized as savior--even though he, himself, is always the harbinger of pain.

 _Not tonight_ , the cowardly God decides, shaking slightly as he pulls away from the beautiful boy presented before him. Chanyeol blinks and follows slowly, propping himself on an elbow to close some of the space Kai has now put between them. “Is everything okay?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Kai nods, smiles though Chanyeol can’t see it yet, and reaches across the bed towards the lamp. “I just...changed my mind.”

The room lights up in a glow of fluorescents and slightly blue tints. Chanyeol has to shield his eyes to adjust, but when he takes his hand away the aura of cool orange that emanates off of Kai’s skin that blinds him. “It’s…” he starts, wincing as the memories sew themselves into the forefront of his mind-- the lifetimes that they’ve met and loved and lost one another. “It’s you…”

The butterfly tattoo on Chanyeol’s back starts to glow until Kai can make out its lines in gentle blue and purple lights reflecting off the whites of his pillows. He smiles and nods. “It’s me.”

“I…” Chanyeol shifts again so that he’s seated upright and runs his hands over his face. Then his fingers settle on his temples and he rubs gently. “This feels so… Like the floodgates have opened in my brain.” He laughs, but Kai knows at least a little of the pain he must be feeling right now.

“I’m sure,” he says with a soft nod, reaching across the space between their bare bodies to run a hand through Chanyeol’s silvery hair. “Take your time.”

After a moment of pause Chanyeol is the first between them to move, his hand extending out to trace the edges of Kai’s cheek. They’d touched a lot already, this isn’t new, but it’s also entirely different. Looking at him now Chanyeol can see the history between them in those now deep brown eyes that he’s loved for so long. “You found me…”

“As always,” Kai smiles, wrapping his hand around Chanyeol’s own. “But this time. I’m not going to let my insecurities harm you. I’m not going to make the same mistakes.” _I’ve grown. I’ve recognized the countless times I’ve lead you astray. I’ll protect you wholly from now on._ The link between them carries those wordless message to Chanyeol who envelops Kai in his arms in return. “I know. I trust you.”

“I love you.” Kai whispers into the crook of Chanyeol’s neck. “Do you think you might be able to love me someday, too?”

Love-- this feeling that the poets’ words could never do justice. That’s what Psyche had told Eros all those years ago. Chanyeol remembers it well. The first time they fell in love. So he chuckles.

“I already do.”


End file.
